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Hello. I’m alive. This is either a relief or a huge disappointment to some of you. As most of you pointed out to me through e-mail, twitter, and facebook I have been AWOL form the blog since December and for that I apologize.
“What happened?”
“Where are you?”
“Are you ok?”
“Damn it lady I need more food.”
“Have you been abducted by Aliens?”
“No seriously, where are you?”
“It was aliens, wasn’t it?”
“I’m a dude I can’t follow recipes, I need more step by step photos. Where did you go.” <- one of my favorites
All words from you that touched me, made me laugh in a dark time, and changed my mind to quit blogging. Yes, I was on the bloggers ledge about to hit the cancel my host button. You see, I didn’t realize how much ISMS gave me a purpose. A drive to find out who I am, where I fit and most importantly the outlet to learn more about my passions (other than the sidekick and her father), cooking and photography. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it. My old pre-kid career minded self is laughing at that those last two sentences right now as I eat yogurt from the jar with a baby spoon, in pajamas and slippers, while asking myself when the last time I washed my hair was.
No, Charlie from Wisconsin, I was not abducted by aliens but I fell into a little bit of a hole, depression if you want to call it, and with it came immense writers block, fatigue, lack of enthusiasm for it all, and an addiction to the TV show “Weeds” that I recently found on Netflix. Just to get out of bed and go on with the day to day had become a struggle. Before I knew it my camera had gathered and inch of dust, and the creativity I once lived of off escaped the kitchen. Not even my friends or relatives knew as they probably never read this blog anyway so they never knew I had stopped and something was slipping with me.
Now two months later I seem to be climbing out of it all. And although I do have to give some credit to The Husband and to one of my best friends who is currently traveling the world but allways stops for a phone call, a lot of it is because of comments and concerns from complete strangers. Eddie – for giving me one of the best compliments ever, Judith – for your concern, Charlie – seriously I don’t know what to say to that, and Mary F., Mark, Veronica S., Brooke, Shari from Tickled Red, Michelle from Confesions of A Recipe Junkie, and all of you on facebook or twitter who here and there sent messages asking about me, the blog, or life. I’ve never met you but would like to say thanks for the encouragement and concern even when you had no idea if anything was wrong or not. To those who have e-mailed, I promise I will return them in time, as I have a a lot to catch up on.
I’m not one to usually talk about the seriousness of life, too much of a downer sometimes. So letting you in on a weakness of mine is a hard hill to tackle. Just going to have to take this day by day and remember that depression has a tendency to be like an ex-boyfriend who ran off to Cabo with your paycheck and friend but tells you he’s at his sick mother’s for the weekend…it’s pretty much a bold face lier. Time to kick it to the curb. Hopefully, with time I will be back to posting recipes and such in my sock monkey slippers.
So, what have you missed in the last two months? A little bit of this and a little bit of that:
First of all, a few weeks before Christmas I lost my beloved and beautiful Grandmother. She was an amazing woman who taught us all the importance of family, unconditional love, fun, and to always dance. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. I miss her dearly.
With Christmas came Christmas cards and needless to say it was a tragically painful shoot.
Christmas was a hard one this year with my Grandmother’s passing and my brother deployed in Afghanistan but her smile kept me going.
I’ve cooked a little and have a wonderful review of Texmati Rice, a long grain American Basmati rice, and a lemon chicken, artichoke, and rice casserole recipe coming very soon.
Great news came at the beginning of January, and my brother, Michael, is back in the states stationed at Fort Knox.
We recently spent time at my family’s ranch where I picked up the camera again for the first time in a month.
I took so many shots in fact that Mia gave me this lovely look while saying, “Lady Mommy put the camera down!”
and I did but not before I took this shot of my favorite people and our furry kid, Jack.
While we were at the ranch, we went hunting and were blessed with a massive deer that will feed us all year. Thankfully, my husband is a better shot than I am. At some point I’ll post this recipe for Venison Wellington with a venison mushroom gravy.
Speaking of The Husband, the other weekend he completed his 10,000th marathon and not to mention a 50 mile trail ultra marathon a couple of days ago. Ok maybe not 10,000th but it was up there. I again broke out the camera which made me realize how much I missed it.
Because with a camera you have an excuse to take shots of anyone.;)
Which brings us to yesterday, and we are all still disillusioned that the Giants won the Super Bowl.
Cheers to you all and thanks for the encouragement. Here’s to a fantastic 2012.
